Inside the Living Quarters of the base.
The comatose Lawson was receiving what could only be described as "VIP-grade" private nursing. Ester had completely discarded her persona as a haughty guide. She crouched by the bed, skillfully wiping the cold sweat from Lawson's brow, occasionally applying an alarming amount of force in her "superhuman-strength" massages. Yet, Lawson remained like a marionette with its strings cut—unresponsive, his breathing so faint it was nearly transparent. He was trapped in a state of endless, deep descent.
At this moment, Lawson's subconscious was traversing another dimension of time and space.
It was a corridor so vast and empty it felt hopeless, filled with the pungent, stinging scent of disinfectant. This was a private hospital. The lights on the entire floor had been extinguished, save for a pale, flickering glow from the room at the very end. Muffled sobs and broken weeping leaked through the door cracks, stabbing at Lawson's eardrums like needles.
Drawn by some invisible thread of fate, he slowly pushed open the heavy door.
In that instant, Lawson felt his blood freeze. Beside the bed, his parents were clinging to each other, weeping until they were breathless. The doctor stood nearby with a solemn expression, closing the medical file and delivering the devastating verdict:
"…I'm very sorry. The patient is brain-dead. Please accept my condolences."
Lawson walked forward stiffly. As the distance closed, the face on the hospital bed finally came into full view.
It wasn't someone else.
The pale, withered figure, whose very breath depended on precision instruments—was himself.
He was standing there as a "soul," a cold observer watching his own death in the real world. Was all of it—the game clearing, the savior complex, the master armorsmith—nothing more than a grand hallucination conjured by a dying brain in its final moments?
The air in the room seemed to turn static.
Just as Lawson was about to suffocate from despair, something horrific happened. The "him" on the bed, the one declared brain-dead, snapped his eyes open without warning! Those weren't human pupils; they were two swirling abysses of frantic, flickering blue data streams.
Suddenly, the entire room suffered a massive signal interference. The walls, the medical equipment, even his weeping parents—all distorted into shattered code pixels before evaporating entirely.
The world plunged into a silent void. Only the transparently pale "Fake Lawson" and the terrified "Real Lawson" remained, locked in a death stare within the emptiness. No words were spoken, only the faint hum of data flowing, as if mocking the frailty of his perceived reality.
"…!"
Back in the Living Quarters of the real world, Lawson let out a sharp cry and bolted upright in bed. His eyes were bloodshot, his consciousness forcibly ripped back from that eerie abyss.
Ester, who had been watching over him, was terrified by the way Lawson had been convulsing and drenching the sheets in sweat. Without wasting a second, she sprinted to the infirmary at full speed, literally dragging the on-duty medical manager back with her.
"Hurry! Brother Lawson is in a very bad state!" Ester urged frantically, nearly smashing the door open.
However, when the two of them burst back into the room, gasping for breath, all that remained was a messy, empty bed.
Nova Star Town, East Sector 3.
This unliberated region has long been completely swallowed by a haze named "Despair." The former peace has dissipated like a shattered illusion, replaced by a chilling sense of solemnity enough to freeze the soul.
The dark canopy of the sky seems to have been crushed by an invisible hand; frantic thunder surges and tears through the clouds like angry dragons, illuminating the heavens in a ghastly white.
It is the proclamation of the Thunder Sovereign's presence. This is not merely an anomaly of weather, but a countdown to approaching death.
Amidst that darkness of unending thunder, it waits patiently for the foolish prey to step into its hunting ground.
Eight warriors stood fully armed. The high-tier armors, {Moon Swift} and {Tiger Soul}, emitted a reassuring glow as Katie synchronized the strategy for the "Thunder Sovereign" with the rookies.
"Listen up. Although this Domain Lord doesn't have many flashy ultimate moves, its most troublesome trait is its ability to summon high rank minions. If we can't strike its core within a short window, we'll be swallowed by an endless tide of monsters. This is a supreme test of our teamwork. Understood?"
"Understood, but..." Emma, maneuvering her clunky armored frame, comically rotated the massive head to look around. "Where is brother Lawson? For a high-difficulty mission like this, he's actually a no-show?"
Dodge let out a dry cough, bullshitting with a straight face. "Ahem! My bro... well, due to certain 'unavoidable technical factors,' he's currently back at the base contemplating the deeper meaning of life. We're filling in for now."
This incredibly forced excuse clearly failed to fool the sharp-eyed rookies. Seeing this, Katie quickly jumped in to smooth things over.
"Senior Lawson wants to test everyone. He explicitly told us that the two of us veterans should lead the team to see if you can stand on your own. The survival of Nova Star Town hangs in the balance; we must liberate this sector first!"
Phyllis and Valerie exchanged a determined look and stepped forward. "If this is a test, then as long as we follow our two seniors, we can definitely take down this Boss!"
Just as the group was pumping themselves up, George's armor core suddenly erupted with a brilliant white light. Without a word, he broke away from the crowd, marching toward the depths of the battlefield with an aura of lethal intent.
"If we keep talking, that monster's 'progeny' will probably multiply enough to rule the Earth," George's voice crackled through the comms, cold as ever. "Moving out."
"Hehe, Mr. George is as impatient as always," Katie took a deep breath and signaled with a wave. "Everyone, move out!"
This expedition squad—only eight members strong but radiating an aura of unstoppable momentum—was about to step into the combat zone when a piercing tear echoed through the void. Ester, disregarding her usual poise, forced open a portal and stumbled out.
She was panting heavily, her usually neat hair disheveled, her eyes filled with a panic never seen before.
"No... this is bad! Katie! Dodge! Brother Lawson... he's gone missing!"
The advancing team hit an instantaneous pause. Katie and Dodge froze in their tracks, their visor snapping open with a hiss to reveal expressions of utter shock.